REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday, February 11, 2005

PRINCE Charles was to marry longtime lover Camilla Parker Bowles, but she would never be his or Britain’s queen.

If Charles became king, she would not be called Queen Camilla but only the Princess Consort.

The surprise announcement, as well as a message of approval from the Queen, put an official seal on a three-decade romance that Princess Diana blamed for the breakdown of her tempestuous marriage to the heir to the throne.

The Prince of Wales and Ms Parker Bowles, both divorcees, were to be wed in a civil ceremony on Friday, April 8, at Windsor Castle.

“The wedding will be a largely private occasion for family and friends,’’ said Clarence House, Charles’s residence and office.

It was said that after the nuptials she would use the title, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall.

That decision was a nod to public opinion, which never warmed to Camilla as it did to the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Diana once described Camilla as the “rottweiler” who brought down her marriage to Charles.

Charles was to visit Australia from February 28 to March in a tour that included tsunami-hit Sri Lanka as well as New Zealand and Fiji.

The announcement received the Queen’s and Prince Philip’s blessing. “We have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together,” said the Queen, adding she was `very happy’.

Charles, 56, was divorced from Diana in 1996, a year before she was killed in a Paris car crash.